to hate my mum's perfume

[leavesarefalling]

My mum has worn the same perfume forever, L'Air du Temps.

She sprays it on VERY liberally (and frequently) and when we are in a confined space like a car, or if it's warm, it makes me sick and gives me a headache.

For Xmas I gave her a new perfume, Chance, but she has never worn it.

I am wondering if her perfume is out of date, as she has litres of the stuff from birthdays and Xmas's and Duty -free, and she is a real hoarder, never- throw-anything-away sort of person.

She is very easily offended by comments and I don't know how to raise this with her!

Ugh! Rive Gauche - shudder. I had forgotten about that. Also Clinique Aromatics literally makes me heave. I had to run off the Tube and throw up in my handbag at 13 weeks pregnant having been pressed up close to some woman just reeking of the stuff. Still makes me feel nauseous thinking about it.

Red Door by Elizabeth Arden makes me feel physically sick. No other perfume comes close to being as bad as that one.

Perfume is such a subjective thing .... there are some, including Poison and Angel (surprise, surprise) which make me want to heave, literally, as do many more which I smell as cloying, sickly, and heavy. My own preference is for much lighter, fresher, citussy or simple floral scent - like DKNY Women, O de Lancome, Guerlain Herba Fresca, Chanel Cristalle or Diorissimo, but I can also remember someone once saying "what's that awful smell" when I was wearing the DKNY though have also had many compliments about it.

What I don't think you can do though is just buy someone any old random perfume and feel offended if they don't wear it. Fair enough if it's in a similar "family" but it's still a big risk as, apart from personal taste, even if something smells nice in the bottle, it can develop very differently - and unpleasantly - on the skin.

I know there are "posh" places where you can have bespoke fragrances made up for you but those are ££££s. How about suggesting a day out shopping and steer your mum into a large department store where you can have "fun" sniffing all the different perfumes ? You don't have to approach it from the angle of "your perfume makes me sick" or even - as you've already tried - "how about some new perfume for Xmas", just dive into it and ask for her opinion on this one and that one .... you never know, she might just come across something she thinks is gorgeous. Use those paper tester thingys so you don't run out of skin!

BTW ..... what is it with all these mums who wear Youth Dew, Blue Grass, and, in my mum's case, Ysatis (another cloying example) as well ??? Were they the only affordable perfumes at one time or something and they've all got stuck in a time warp ?

anybody old enough to remember Aqua Manda,cheap perfume so everybody could afford it.Lots of others from long ago,Charlie probably the best known

Charlie Blue is one of the most unpleasant things I have ever smelled in my life. I am amazed people pay Revlon so they can smell of it.

None of the horrors listed above comes anywhere near the grotesque assault on the senses of Jean-Paul Gaultier's hideous Classique: top notes of SWEAT and base notes of beetroot and shit. The absolute worst of all time.

Omg yes to Red Door and Kouros.

I sympathise, strong perfume can make me heave too although I actually don't mind L'air du Temps. But I think of it as light and not something I'd slosh on liberally.

poison is my fave perfume ever-but i don't wear it cos everyone hates it - including my dh. I just sniff it in debenhams.

I agree you cant really buy perfume for someone else as it reacts with your skin and what it lovely on one person is foul on another - my sister loved opium on me but said it smelt like "weasels piss" on her.

I used to catch the bus when poison, LouLou and Dewberry were popular - I am VERY smell sensitive in the morning and there were some days my head was pounding and felt sick by the time I got to work

DH got some Brut for xmas one year from one of his elderly aunts and I SWEAR it burnt out the inside of my nostrils.

Quite a few of the floral perfumes trigger a stinking migraine in me.

Friends and colleagues are aware of this and I'd never use this to have a power of veto on perfumes and aftershaves worn around me.

just saying like

Ugh, JPG and Issey Miyake. Simply smear a costco cake all over yourself for the same effect.

i wear Gurlain Champs eleysee but would still love to wear poison.

I'm not keen on Poison but I really really love Pure Poison. Also, like Flowerbomb. Does anyone remember 'Babe' from the 80's?

... and no it didn't smell like a pig!

I LOVE Clinique's Aromatic and have worn it for ever. People have stopped me in the street and ask what it is as they love it but some people hate it. Can't wear it in the summer though I swap to something lighter and more citrussy. Perfume so very personal. For instance I loathe Chanel Number 5 but that is so popular! I remember Acqua Manda and do you remember Gingham?

There was a perfume called Gingham!?

V glam.

I'd forgotten about the yucky Jean Paul Gautier - to me, it smells like burnt rubber - nice.

And on the subject of revolting - how about the infamous Giorgio Beverly Hills ?

God I'd forgotten that one Catsmother. It smelt like rotting bananas.

My friend wears Giorgio, so I like it- although it has clearly been toned down as it isn't very strong now. I remember Babe, it was a late 70's scent wasn't it? In peach packaging? think I can vaguely remember how it smelled.

Sometime in the 80s My friend - who was about 16 at the time - vomited in the car beside her stepmother who had doused herself in Chloe - the original formulation, not the new one, which smelled absolutely rotten, like rank wilted lilies combined with warm meat.

Anyway she cried out that 'it was the perfume that made her sick.' and apparently Chloe was off the menu after that. Stepmother to scared to wear it again.

Perhaps some well timed projectile vomiting might get the message across to your MIL?

The worst perfume to me is opium. My room mate used to wear it [rather liberally], it smells rank to me.
Most perfumes can be sick inducing if they are applied too heavily, IMO.

YANBU. I have the same problem with my Mum. She baths in the stuff and it makes me feel sick! I have told her so many times not to wear so much when she is in the car with me......but she ignores me.

The last time she did it, I was on my way to an eye appointment, and I had a migraine by the time we arrived. I feel your pain.

Anyone remember Femme by Rochas? It literally smells of anus. I am not kidding.

Another one of those whole hate Angel. And JPG- truly vile gag-inducing smell.

Funnily enough OP I have always hated any perfume my mother wore (and there have been a few) Coco, a lot of Kenzo ones... I am starting to feel it's to the perfume, but who wears it.
However I absolutely love Shalimar as it reminds me of my beloved grandmother who wore it for about 60 years.

Urgh. My mil wears Rive Gauche liberally applied to cover up the ciggies. My DS honks of it after spending time there. Makes me heave.
She also draws her eyebrows on so she looks like a surprised clown.

I'm a Boss Orange fan meself